Slàinte (aka "cheers"!)

Happy St. Patty's day a bit late from Kieran and family! Notice that he was sporting his shamrock bib and that there are actual shamrocks behind our little Irishman (thanks grandma Sandy)! Also notice the breakfast smeared across KP's forehead... he decided to wear his oats Wednesday morning, rather than eat them! This is why we try to avoid self feeding before daycare and save it for the evenings, right before bath-time! But apparently Kieran had other ideas because he ended up with both the helper spoon and the actual eating spoon and then proceeded to smear his yogurt/fruit/oats mix on his forehead! Luckily I had a camera handy and was able to quickly capture the moment before he used the food as a styling product! Slàinte!

The first birthday party!

What a wonderful day!!!

Thank you so much to our wonderful families for their generosity, time and love today!

Kieran's first birthday was a smashing success and a good time was had by all! From the spider cake to the fun gifts to the Kieran slide show to our great company and delicious food... everything was perfect!

No major meltdowns from either of the babies (or mommy!), plenty to eat, the cake turned out great, everyone made it and most importantly Kieran seemed to have a wonderful time!

One of the best parts was watching Kieran demolish his first cupcake... I am not sure if he got much in his mouth but he sure did have a fun time playing with it and making a great big mess! Hopefully the blue frosting will come off his cute Itsy Bitsy Spider shirt Grandma Sandy had embroidered for him- we want to wear it again!

As you can see, KP had so much fun he passed out cold on the way home... mommy stopped mid-way through unlatching him to snap a quick photo of our sleepy little one-year-old tuckered out in his car seat... soooo tired!

Happy first birthday little one, we all love you very, very much.

Kieran at Runge Nature Center

We took Kieran to the Runge Nature Center today for a change of pace from the mall play place... and we are sure glad we did! He LOVED it! Just like at the mall there is no one there at 8 in the morning so we had the place to ourselves. There is tons of room for a little guy to roam and so much to explore... floor to ceiling windows that look out onto birds, squirles, chipmunks, and deer; varrious habitat exhibits with doors to open and shut, stuffed animals and other mainipulatives to play with; so many cool nature sounds to hear and more! We spent nearly two hours there checking out each exhibit. Kieran was nearly nodding off by 10:00 from all the crawling around, up and down stairs and the exciting sites and sounds! He and daddy are off for a nap drive now while mommy starts the birthday cake and updates the blog. What a lovely way to start the day!

365 days old today!

As unreal as it might seem, Kieran has been here, on the outside, for 365 days as of 2:41 this morning. Daddy and I wish you a very happy birthday weekend big boy, we love you very much.

There will be many more photographs, videos and memories to record here as Kieran's special weekend unfolds... stay tuned.

Happy 52 Weeks!!!

We made it! 52 weeks worth of blog entries (with a few exceptions) of the first year with Kieran! Tomorrow he will be a year old. Unbelivible!

The photos of Kieran in the yellow space man shirt were taken yesterday at Grandma/Grandpa's house because Sheila was sick so he got to spend some quality time with nana and papa. They took a long walk in the park, drove down to Hartsburg and enjoyed the unseasonably warm March weather. Kieran really loved sitting at the grown up table with grandpa and playing in his highchair fort! He didn't nap too much for them but that's only because he was having way too much fun to sleep!

The top two photos (plus the first week photo- thrown in for comparison) mark the end of the weekly owl-pal photo shoots. Of course we will still keep up with the blog but from here on out posts will be made on his month birthday and then randomly as fun things occur- which is quite often with Kieran so stay tuned... there is so much more to come!